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Air New Zealand names acting CEO, says earnings down
Air New Zealand names acting CEO, says earnings down Air New Zealand has announced that the airline’s current chief financial officer, Jeff McDowall, will become acting CEO on 26 September when current CEO Christopher Luxon steps down. The airline said it was conducting a global search for a permanent replacement and said McDowall had ruled himself out as a candidate for the post. The carrier also said it posted a 31 percent fall in annual net profit due to higher fuel prices and waning domestic demand. Net profit to the end of June was NZ$270 million (US$173 million), down from NZ$390 million a year earlier. The airline’s chairman, Tony Carter, who launched a review of the airline’s operations after a profit downgrade in January, described the result as “solid”. “While we are disappointed that we did not meet the expectations we first set for ourselves at the start of the financial year, the fact is we are operating in a different demand environment than we were 12 months ago,” he said. The airline forecast growth of 7-8 percent in its long-haul operations, stimulated by new destinations Seoul and Chicago, as well additional capacity to Taipei and Singapore. “When we first saw signs that demand was slowing, we took immediate steps to review our network, fleet and cost base, to position the airline for success in a lower growth environment. While we have made progress, this work is still ongoing. Carter too is stepping down from his role as chairman and will be replaced by Therese Walsh, who is currently a director and who also is leading the search for a new CEO. Walsh says that given the calibre of the candidates being considered in the selection process it is possible that the new CEO will not start until the first quarter of 2020. McDowall’s previous roles at Air New Zealand include group general manager corporate finance and group general manager commercial. Prior to Air New Zealand he worked across a variety of industries in Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
TAGSAir New ZealandAirlinesCEONew Zealand
Matt Driskillhttp://www.matt-driskill.com
Matt Driskill is the Editor of Asian Aviation. He has been an Asia-based journalist and content producer since 1990 for outlets including Reuters and the International Herald Tribune/New York Times and is a former president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong. He appears on international broadcast outlets like Al Jazeera, CNA and the BBC and has taught journalism at Hong Kong University and American University of Paris. In 2022 Driskill received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” from the Aerospace Media Awards Asia organisation for his editorials and in 2024 received a “Special Recognition for Editorial Perspectives” award from the same organisation. Driskill has received awards from the Associated Press for Investigative Reporting and Business Writing and in 1989 was named the John J. McCloy Fellow by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York where he earned his Master's Degree.
马特·德里斯基尔（Matt Driskill）是《亚洲航空》（Asian Aviation）的主编。他自1990年起，担任驻亚洲的记者和内容制作人，曾为路透社、国际先驱论坛报/纽约时报等媒体工作，并曾任香港外国记者协会会长。他也曾多次在半岛电视台、新加坡广播公司（CNA）和BBC等国际媒体担任嘉宾，并在香港大学和巴黎美国大学教授新闻学。2022年，德里斯基尔因其评论获得了航空媒体奖（Aerospace Media Awards Asia）颁发的“杰出成就奖”，2024年又因其编辑观点获得同一组织颁发的“特别表彰”。他曾获得美联社的调查报道和商务写作奖，并于1989年被纽约哥伦比亚大学研究生新闻学院授予约翰·J·麦克劳伊学者（John J. McCloy Fellow）称号，获得硕士学位。